YOUR HOMECOMING WILL BE MY HOMECOMING

dear everyone,

I can`t believe this is it! my last email! this last year and a half has been the greatest and worst and most exhausting and most joyful experience of my life!

When I started my mission my heart was so hard. It was a very hard decision for me to make, and I was very prideful. I needed to pray literally every day for the desire to be here. There were many days where it was the hardest thing in the world to get out of bed and to do anything. But slowly, thanks to the mercy and grace of my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ, I learned to change. Yes, there were still many hard and discouraging moments, but I cannot remember a single bad day. The joyful expériences are so much greater. Going on a mission was the greatest decision I have ever made, and I`m so grateful for the promptings of the Holy Ghost and the answers to my prayers that helped me to know that I should go, even if it was hard. With Heavenly Father and our Savior on our side we can do hard things, we can do all things.

I had an STL at the beginning of my mission who told me that the reason you go on your mission is different than the reason you stay on your mission, and I have always thought about that as Heavenly Father blessed me with the most incredible expériences and with more love for the people of Québec and Ottawa than I ever thought I could feel.

I went on my mission because I knew it was what Heavenly Father wanted me to do, but I stayed because in Québec City I met Jaqueline and her giant fat cat Cannelle who pushed her off her bed- she showed us more love than we deserved. Tamar saw herself in the temple. Sister Robanske changed because of her 9 year old son. I met Lucie. my Lady Lucie who loved more than anyone I have ever met even though no one ever taught her how.

In Fallowfield I learned charity. Mavis and Sister Echlin went to the temple. Madison got baptized and is now part of a family that can go to the temple and be together for eternity. Doris saw miracles with her simple faith.

Gatineau was where I learned more about my Savior Jesus Christ than ever before by the Christlike examples of those around me. Jocelyne was happy. Hydrisse was changed by the Restoration. Claude is a Catholic priest reading the Book of Mormon. KATHY GOT ENDOWED. The Gatineau Christmas.

In Victoriaville I was stretched more than I ever had been before and saw simple, tender mercies from Heavenly Father every day. Nelly and Zoe want to go on missions. Sœur Girard let us serve her. Xiaohua felt the spirit when she prayed for the first time in her life. The twins learned about Christ.

In Ville Marie I learned to connect with anyone because we are all children of our Heavenly Father. Georgette had been waiting her whole life for another testament of Jesus Christ. Jean prayed to know God`s will for him and that afternoon he met us. Rebeca went to institute.

I am so grateful for the opportunities that Heavenly Father gives His missionaries. He gave me way more reasons to stay on my mission than I deserved! I`ve seen miracles. I see them every day. I know I have been blessed and my family has been blessed and I know who my Savior Jesus Christ is, and that has meant everything. This is truly His work. He guides it every step of the way.

I know that in 1820 there was a young boy name Joseph Smith of great faith and humility who wanted to know what Church was the true Church of God. In his simplicity, he turned to God in prayer and because of his great faith, he saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ when he was just 14 years old. I know Joseph was called as a prophet to restore the exact same gospel to the earth that Christ established when He was here. We have it today. We have the authority of God on the earth today. I know families can be together forever as part of the great Plan of Salvation that God has for each one of His children.

I know Jesus Christ lives. It is through faith in Him and His Atonement and repentance that we can change. He gives us so many chances, and I am so grateful for that because Sister Paine needs lots of chances.

I love the Book of Mormon. It truly testifies and teaches us about Christ. I cling to that book. I cannot live without it.

I was 15 when I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time. I remember reading in Moroni chapter 7 in particular and feeling the spirit so strongly testifying to me that this was true. I knelt down and prayed to know if it was true and if I had a Heavenly Father who was really there and really loved me. I will never forget that moment when I knew it was true to the point where I knew I could never deny the truthfulness of those things because like Joseph, I knew it and I knew that God knew I knew it. I want to share 3 of my favorite verses from Moroni 7, 46-48,

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

He wants us to be like Him! And we can be! That gives me the greatest hope of all. I have SO many people to thank- I know if I tried to write everyone down, I would forget some people but know I love you all the same! In particular, I need to thank my mom and dad, Ethan and Kate, Benj, Jared, Rachel, Rebekah, my extended family who supported me and prayed for me, the Québec, Fallowfield, and Gatineau Wards, the Victoriaville Branch, the Ville Marie ward, all of my companions- Sisters Dinge, Boza, Clark, Dexter, Dampt, Fleming, Garcia, Ellsworth, and Perez, my STL`s and leaders, and the people of Québec and Ottawa who let me love them even if they didn`t really want me to ;). Thank you all my friends who wrote me and loved me!

 

I love you all!

love,

Sœur Erica Paine

ps all you missionaries add my regular email to your lists! ericabpaine@gmail.com

pictures:

exchanges with the STL`s

district picture

with Lovely and Princesse

WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED

dear everyone,

what a week! this week felt like every day there has been so much opposition! it is like someone is trying to stop us or something...like trying to get to an appointment but it taking 3 hours to get there on the metro so it is too late, pouring rain, parking tickets, cancelled everything. but we keep going and we saw SO many miracles.

in the mission we have been focusing on teaching the message of the restoration to members in 5 minutes, just a short and powerful lesson. we practice this twice on tuesday. the first was with a less active member we found. she is so funny! you go into her house and it looks like a 12 year old girl`s room. she has cut out pictures from magazines of beautiful people and put them all over her walls. i think she is at least 65. she likes us and told us we could keep coming back because she thinks we are beautiful and i am her angel. whatever works. anyway, she LOVES to talk and we can hardly ever get a word in. we asked if we could share a 5 min lesson with her she said yes. the spirit was so powerful. she was rivited and speechless as we taught the restoration. that is the power of the Holy Ghost!

later that night we went to visit a sweet lady in our ward who is in a nursing home and shared with her the restoration. she loved it so much she asked us to do it again! ha!

this week i had a couple of people contact me, which never happens! the first guy sister perez and i started talking to and we actually had a really great conversation and fixed a return appointment. at the end though, he tried to hug me so i had a do a really fast duck and back away! then later that night we were walking home and a man started talking to us...

"did you know that 80% of the world`s population believes we have been to the moon? we haven`t!"

"do you know they say they are trying to get to mars, but they are really looking for ET!"

he was obviously drunk and when he shook our hands, he shook it and then put it to his forehead.... it was an interesting day to say the least!

then friday we had the biggest, coolest miracle! i`m sitting in the metro and a guy walks on, looks at me and then says, "are you a mormon missionary?" i say yes and we get off the metro together and he tells me he studied with missionaries in the 90`s. his name is jean, he loves president Hinckley, and he was so close to being baptized but his girlfriend, yolandita, held him back. he said he prayed this morning and so this was no coincidence! this was a sign! he said he felt the spirit so strongly and talked to us for a good 25 min. we tried to get his contact info but he wouldn`t give it to us! we gave him a card and he left.

sunday we were sitting in Church and guess who shows up?!? JEAN! he stayed for Church and loved it! he is a really friendly guy so he made friends with everyone and we were able to pass him off to the elders who teach the men in the area. it turns out he doesn`t have a phone, but he is excited to be baptized and keep coming to Church, after he takes all of the lessons of course. he even took notes during gospel principles!

this week i heard a quote i really love from the training videos each missionary has to do before they go home,

"The power to become is to look to Christ and live. We have the potential to become like Heavenly Father, we can be like dad, and that`s only possible because of Christ and because of the Atonement."

i have told you time and time again but i have seen the reality of this on my mission! i can`t believe this will be my last full week! we are going to see miracles and we are going to see the hand of God in our lives every single day (as always). i am so excited. we will not be stopped!

i love you all! thank you so much for all of your prayers, love, and support. i definitely can feel the strength that comes from the support! have a great week!

love,

sœur paine

pictures:

sister perez, lovely, and i (she is a member who lets us steal her phone to take better selfies)

sister perez and i

hotel de ville in montreal

our life waiting at a bus stop in the heat

MIRACLES, RAIN, AND FOOD POISONING

dear everyone,

this has been quite a week! last weekend as a district we did a fast together because in all of our areas we have been lacking in certain areas of the work. this week we were able to see really sweet blessings from that fast.

personally, we have been struggling with getting appointments so we have been contacting all the time. this week, every single day we had lessons! every person we passed by was home, and even when we had dinner appointments there ended up being nonmembers there to teach! it was such a tender mercy from Heavenly Father!

we had a really great lesson with our investigator, euchariste. she is from haiti and is super into meditation. she has this lady she follows who is her meditation guide and she has pictures of her all over her house, it`s kinda weird but she is very nice and has lots of good questions. wednesday we wanted to see her and we couldn`t get ahold of her on the phone, so we just decided to pass by. everything worked out and we got in to her building no problem. we knocked on her door and she answered and told us that she had just came home but since it was us she would let us in. we had a really wonderful lesson about the plan of salvation with her and she really opened up to us.

this week we also had a lot of opposition. tuesday it was pouring rain and Einstein over here forgot her raincoat and an umbrella, so i was soaking wet all day. and thursday, thursday i was SO SICK with food poisoning all day so we couldn`t go out. saturday we went over to an investigators` house and they got into an argument (almost yelling) about religion in front of us and it was really awkward but everything worked out and we were able to have a really beautiful lesson afterwards about how Heavenly Father blesses us in our afflictions.

this week i finished the Book of Mormon again in my personal studies. i decided to go back and read individual chapters for the rest of the week during my studies instead of restarting again immediately. i was reading this morning in 2 Néphi 4, which is when Nephi has his lament to God, and it`s AWESOME! (this will be parts of verses 17-35)

"O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.

And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.

My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.

Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night-time.

...yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.

... And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man...

O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?

...O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?

O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever...

Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen."

now that i have just quoted the whole Book of Mormon, isn`t it awesome??? i love how he starts out lamenting because he is a wicked man and if he is a wicked man, we all have a lot of work to do, but he remembers all of the things that the Lord has done for him. i especially love the last verse, "I know that my God will give me if I ask not amiss." i know this is true, too. i have seen it. He does support us in all things. we are never alone! and He hears and answers all of our prayers!

i love you all! have a great week!

love,

Sœur Paine

pictures:

notre dame de Montréal

soaking wet sister paine

we got bagels from a bagel place that is supposed to be famous

COME TO ME THAT I MAY HEAL YOU

dear everyone,

this week we had a really cool lesson with one of our new investigators, Ahmed. he is the muslim man we met last week. we were supposed to pass him off to the ysa elders, but they couldn`t make the appointment and asked us to go instead. again, he had a TON of questions so we ended up talking a lot about the plan of salvation and then taught him how to pray. he has a hard time praying in the name of Jesus Christ, but we testified to him that it works, so he said,"Alright I`m going to pray." and he did it right there! his prayer was awesome! and he commited  to do it again by himself! it was a miracle.

this week we went on a search for former investigators and it took us to lots of interesting people and areas. we met a really wonderful lady named marcelle who is from africa and told us we can come and teach her and her sister! we are excited for her.

this week sister perez and i have been talking a lot about the atonement in our companionship study. we both read in the Book of Mormon at different places and found scriptures that we really love to now use together.

Mosiah 3:19,

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

and 3 Néphi 9:13,

"O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?"

in both of these scriptures, Christ is asking us to come to Him. He is asking us to allow His sacrifice to change us and to heal us. isn`t that incredible?

i love you all! have a great week!

love,

sœur paine

pictures:

LOL@ bad translation

from st. joseph that we visited last week

THAT THY FAITH FAIL NOT

dear everyone,

the island is awesome! it`s taken some getting used to and it is weird because it takes 12 million years to get anywhere but anyway it is wonderful! like a breath of fresh air!

this week we had the confirmation of a former investigator who is now a recent convert at Church (sister perez and her old companion baptized her)! it is always such a special experience when people receive the gift of the holy ghost and are officially a member of the Church!

funny experience: thursday in the metro i sit down next to someone and there was a guy in front of me who exclaimed "oh my word, you are so pretty!" REALLY loud i realized he was talking to me and so i decided might as well use it to my advantage and try and talk to him. then he saw sister perez and said, "oh my goodness you are so pretty too!" we asked him if he had seen missionaries before or knew anything about our Church and he told us the only thing he knew was that there are beautiful women.

this week i was studying an address from the byu women`s conference (it`s super good you can find it on lds.org) and there was a scripture that i loved. it`s Luke 22:31-33,

"31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death."

oh how i love this verse! i love how the Lord prayed for simon and he is then able to have the strength to continue. i know our Savior Jesus Christ loves us all that much as well to pray for us so that we may have faith that never fails.

i love you all! have a great week!

love,

sœur paine

pictures:

Victoriaville:

with sr. Girard, the becquereau famille, and there is a man who rides his horse down downtown Victoriaville and we finally got a picture of him and it ended that i was in the picture too! haha! we were laughing so hard (he is right by the side Mirror)

montreal:

i`ll get some better pictures of montreal i promise, sister perez and i

THE LAST HAUL IN MONTREAL

dear everyone, 

big news, i'm getting transferred again! for my very last transfer i will be in Montreal! i will be going right to the island (fun fact: montreal is an island). i will be serving in the Ville Marie ward with sister perez as my companion. i'm excited! i've always been far away from montreal during my mission and i never thought i would serve there! and the cool thing is now i will have served in Quebec City, Ottawa and Montreal, the three major cities in my mission. 

this week was a week of miracles and i can see how the Lord was preparing this area for sister ellsworth to take over, and for that i am very grateful. 

we had great lessons with many of our investigators, but the miracles were the lessons themselves. we decided that many of our investigators were not progressing so we should probably stop teaching them. we planned final lessons and this week when we gave those "final" lessons, everything changed! our investigators really opened up and really trust us. i am so grateful to Heavenly Father that He allowed us to have those lessons and because the lessons were so great, we won't be dropping most of them! 

i am sad to be leaving victoriaville. it's been a growing experience for sure, but there are so many people here that i love and my dear baby greenie sister ellsworth whom i am heartbroken to leave. i think one of the sweetest moments i had this week was last night when we visited our investigator xiaohua. she has been difficult to get ahold of and really busy. this week we had a lesson with her where she opened up about her struggles and how she feels very alone and overwhelmed. she has been sick and sad for a long time. last night when we stopped by to say goodbye, she was happy. and that was the greatest gift to me. it's been a long time since i've seen her happy. 

i know the church is true. it's the best and greatest gift we have, the gospel and our Savior Jesus Christ. i've seen it change lives. it's changed mine. i am so grateful for the gift i have of sharing this message of joy to the people here in quebec. i know these next 6 weeks will be some of the most important weeks of my mission. they will be a time of great worth and i'm all in. i can't wait to see what miracles the Lord will bless the people of montreal with!

i love you all! have a great week!

love,

soeur paine

pictures: 

1-2. victoriaville. it is known for it's dairy factory

3-4. the Dupont family! they fed us ever week and helped us out a ton. I love them! 

5. we drove out to the countryside this week and it was beautiful 

6. breanna the sticker monster and a washed out sister paine

7. xiaohua and i

8. sister ellsworth and i

MINI MISSIONARIES AND MIRACLES

dear everyone, 

this week was pretty great! we had a couple of amazing miracles

the first was marie-francine. we have been trying to get in touch with her for a long time but nothing ever worked. finally, we were able to meet with her and we had a really uplifting lesson. she has had a really hard life. an unhappy childhood, got into drugs and bad things as a teenager, and has been searching for peace and a better relationship with God her whole life. she told us there were moments when she found it, when she could feel the spirit, but now she can't and she know she is missing something. we were able to show her the Book of Mormon and she is so excited to read it! 

the second miracle we had was we had a mini missionary with us this weekend! her name is brenda and she is from the quebec ward where i started my mission. the stake did a big activity this weekend, so we all had mini missionaries from all over the whole stake. sister ellsworth and i were a bit worried because our days haven't always been super busy and we didn't want soeur mosiman to have a bad experience. we prayed so hard and as always, the Lord provided! 

saturday our day was full of lessons! we had only 1 set appointment, but we passed by many others and had great lessons. at the end of the day, soeur mosiman told us how special of a day it was for her. we were so grateful and relieved! sunday she was with us, too and we did many pass by's and only spoke to a few people, but at the end of our time together, we had a HUGE miracle! for the past 4 or 5 weeks there has a been a boy coming to church. he is 16 and is friends with a couple of people in the branch, but he comes to church all by himself on his bike. we have been talking to him and trying to set up a lesson with him every single week, but there were many reasons why we couldn't, etc, etc. well, sunday he called US! and asked what we were doing monday night and we said nothing so we have a lesson with him tonight! it's a miracle! after the call soeur mosiman asked if we had people call us a lot to make appointments and we told her that never happens! 

this week we were also blessed to do some service outside! we had great weather for a few days. we did gardening and were able to help some of our branch members out. that was a blessing for us! 

this week i've been reading in the Book of Mormon the book of Mormon. the people are so wicked. there are wars and they do not want to repent. they boast in their own strength and they did not call on God for help. and many times in the verses it says, "God was not with them." that scares me! i cannot and do not want to imagine a world where God is not with us. reading these scriptures made me appreciate more the Gift of the Holy Ghost and prayer. we do live in a world that has many bad things, but we have a promise that as long as we are faithful, Heavenly Father will never abandon us. i know this is true. He wants us to call on Him for His help and the help of His son Jesus Christ. He loves us. 

I love you all!

love, 

Soeur Paine

pictures:

our mini missionary 

PANTS ON FIRE

dear everyone, 

this week has been pretty good! we were really busy this week working with members in our branch which was really great! 

we had some pretty funny things happen this week, too. our stake is doing a program called "souviens-toi" which is to help less-active members of the branch/ward remember how they met the church, the way they felt when they were baptized, and their testimony. we have been visiting people in our branch that we don't know with members so that we can do this and hopefully help them remember the way they felt so they will want to feel it again. wednesday we went to visit a man and he didn't know who we were, he said he was 98 years old and didn't remember ever being a part of our church. so we left thinking he might be really confused because the man we were supposed to visit is in his 70's, in a wheelchair and at that address but has had many accidents so we thought that's why he forgot. come to find out, we might have visited the wrong person (even though he did say he was the person we asked for). OOPS!

another really funny experience we had was when our less active told us the story of when her bum caught fire. literally caught fire. it's not funny because it really hurt her. but what was funny was how she told us the whole experience and then showed us her pants and just the bum was burned. completely gone (she was laughing too). it was so ridiculous we couldn't believe it! 

this week we also went to go visit a family in our branch that lives out in the country. it was a beautiful drive and they are french so we ate wonderful french food! a three-course meal! and we talked about their favorite french food and they created a menu for the next time we go over to eat at their house. we also ate a raclette with another french family in our ward. a raclette is a meal you eat with potatoes and all different kinds of meat. you can cook them there at the table if you want and then you also are melting cheese the whole time that you pour over your potatoes and meat. needless to say i am now a whale.

this week in my studies i read an article about peace and how often times we may be searching for answers to questions or reasonings behind things and we ask God, "why?" most of the time we don't ever know why but Heavenly Father blesses us with the feeling of peace. i love D&C 6:23, "Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?" Peace is the greatest testimony that we can receive from our Heavenly Father. for me that is so comforting, especially when i'm seaching and wanting to know why and i'm impatient and then i feel the peace of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

sorry my letters are kind of lame i'm just soo tired of writing haha 

i hope you all have a great week!

love,

soeur paine

pictures:

i'm the mean trainer who takes a picture of her greenie backing her up (don't worry it was really warm that day)

the drive to the sere-couteight family's house 

sister ellsworth and i, again in the rain 

HAPPY EASTER!

dear everyone, 

this week was great. we had more appointments than we normally have which was a big blessing because it rained a ton! we were able to teach about Jesus Christ in the week leading up to His resurrection. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary around Easter because that is truly the message we are trying to bring to the world. The message that we have a Savior who lives today! 

we had a miracle yesterday with our investigator xiaohua (the one from china). she told us about 3 weeks ago she was really busy and couldn't meet us until after easter. we were heartbroken because things were going so well and normally when people tell us that, we come back and they never want to see us again. we went back yesterday and she was happy to see us! we were so happy! we shared the easter video and made an appointment for later this week. 

another miracle we had was when we were passing by a former investigator of the elders. president phillips had given us a name of an investigator, michael, that the elders also used to work with who had a lot of potential. we found his information and tried to contact him, but he is at the hospital for something going on with his ears. we called and passed by a few times but he was never there. when we passed by this other former, denis, he was so happy to see us and told us that his friend, michael, was in the hospital but would want to meet with us too and that we can all meet together! it was an answer to our prayers because we had no idea how we were going to get in contact with michael. 

also something funny was on easter we had a man call us and tell us he was John the Baptist and then tried to bible bash with us on the phone (we just told him we had an appointment and hung up the phone).

sunday was easter and it was wonderful. i love the easter seaon. it is hope, renewal, and spring. I know Christ lives! 

i love you all! have a great week! 

love,

soeur paine 

picture:

happy easter from us! 

WE ATE A HORSE

dear everyone,

this week was great! we started the week off with a dinner appointment at a family's house that we love. except WE ATE HORSE! it was sneaky. they fed us the food and it was good, we enjoyed it, but afterwards, the brother said, "you just ate horse meat!" and while i know that's not the most exotic thing in the world, i was a bit disgruntled that i had eaten a horse. it's just like ground beef but all the same. 

tuesday morning we drove to quebec city for zone conference. zone conference is always great! we talked about how we can improve our teaching. sister ellsworth and i have been trying really hard to put into practice the things we learned by asking inspired questions. we saw this bring the spirit this week in our lessons! the first was with a family in our ward. we shared with them the Prince of Peace video, and afterwards we asked them what they were feeling. it made the spirit even stronger as they testified of what they felt in simple words like, "calm" "peace" and "full." the second lesson we had was with our investigator, chantal. we showed her the Prince of Peace video and the first time she was kind of distracted so we were sad she wasn't getting the full experience. however, when we asked her an "inspired question," she started playing the video again as she described her feelings and it was awesome!

this week we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders in quebec city. i was with sister piscitello who is from france and has the most beautiful french accent! we had a great time. we had some really good lessons and went street contacting. the people in quebec are so different from the people in victoriaville! we were able to share our easter message with a lot of people and we even got a new investigator! we met him on the street and he told us we could go with him the tim horton's (coffee shop) and talk with him there. it was a great lesson and he really is believing and needs the gospel in his life.

other than that this week there was a huge snow storm in quebec tuesday and wednesday when we were there and it snowed on saturday again. but today is beautiful! i hope it never snows again! 

oh yeah, i almost forgot... GYM WATCHED CONFERENCE! we learned this week that our investigator, gym was able to watch the first session of conference and he really loved it!! it is a miracle! 

i've been thinking a lot about the conference talks we watched last weekend and i really love elder rasband's on the Holy Ghost. this past sunday in our branch we had fast and testimony meeting and it was a really great meeting. in branch council, one of the leaders challenged all of us at branch council to bear our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gospel we have on the earth. many people bore their testimonies and the spirit was so strong. i love the Holy Ghost that warns us and guides us and comforts us. it is the Holy Ghost that binds us to the Lord and it is through having spiritual experiences together, feeling the Holy Ghost together that we are edified and unified. 

i love you all! have a great week!

love,

soeur paine

picture: soeur piscitello and i on our exchange 

PRINCE OF PEACE

dear everyone, 

this week was general conference, which is always THE BEST! 

we had some cool miracles. one of our investigators is making real progress. he is very intelligent and knows a lot about God and has a very good relationship with Him. and he wasn't reading or praying for the things we asked him to do. finally, this past week, we had a breakthrough lesson! we had an amazing member come with us and planned to just talk about the Book of Mormon using the introduction of the Book of Mormon. we sat down and asked him if he had prayed to know the Book of Mormon was true, as we had asked him to do the last time we saw him. i'll admit that i didn't have faith in him like i should have because i thought he probably hadn't done what we asked of him again. but he had! he said he prayed. and he knows the Book of Mormon is true. we then went on to explain as the introduction states,

"We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah."

after asking him what he thought, he told us that he does not doubt joseph was a prophet and he knows the church is true. he knows the Book of Mormon is true. he cannot deny it. the spirit was so strong!!! he has some concerns he still needs to work out, but after that lesson, we know what his concerns are and where he stands! 

another miracle we had was wednesday night. we had a lesson set up with a lady and her daughters from ecuador. we thought we would be teaching the mother, but we got in and she was there, but she wasn't super interested. who was interested was her cute 11 year old twin daughters. i had the plan of salvation in pictures in my bag, so we taught it to them, and they drank it up! they have such a desire to know God and had amazing questions and knew so much as well! we are excited to continue to teach them! we got to teach in french, english and spanish. it was fun to practice my spanish (i have no spanish)!

and this weekend was general conference. and it snowed again. but anyway, i loved conference. i can't wait to read the words we heard again and again. 

i know we have a living prophet. i was so grateful to hear from our prophet, Thomas S. Monson. i know that he is called of God. i loved his admonition to use the Book of Mormon. through my missionary work, i have seen how incredibly vital it is. it is, in fact, the keystone of our religion. the Book of Mormon is true, and just like the introduction says, i know Joseph Smith was a prophet because he would not have been able to translate it otherwise- and i know that Joseph did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and he did restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth and i know this is all true because Heavenly Father loves us. He wants us to have the fulness of His gospel. i know it. i know it in every fiber of my being. no matter how many people tell us that we are dumb or what we believe is crazy (and that happens almost every day), one of my favorite things to do is to testify of the Restoration of the Gospel because it is evidence of God's love for us.   

i know there is power in the Book of Mormon. i feel it every day of my life when i read it. i desperately need the blessings i receive when i read the Book of Mormon every day. i cannot live without them. i hope you will all cling to the book and its teachings. that is what i try to do. if nothing else, if someone, knowing nothing of Jesus Christ, decides to read the Book of Mormon, they will learn of Him and His love for us. 

i love you all! 

love,

soeur paine

ps. i almost forgot! the church has a new Easter initiative, and like always, it's incredible! it is called Prince of Peace because through Christ we can find peace in this life. 

https://www.mormon.org/

it's sooo good! WATCH IT. SHARE IT!

(sorry i don't have any pictures this week...)